Duke Energy operates the lake and the hydrostations there, and the company has to get a relicensing agreement from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to keep doing so.

In the initial draft, Duke Energy is proposing to operate the lake no lower than 5 feet below full pool about 96 percent of the time. However, in the most severe drought stage, the company is proposing operating the lake 10 feet below full pool, which a spokeswoman said would happen around 1 percent of the time.

Newton Brightwell is one of the nearly 700 homeowners who signed the petition.

Brightwell and his wife moved to Lake Keowee two years ago to live out their retirement dreams, but worry their paradise is draining out from under them.

"We bought this property with the belief that the lake would be relatively stable. That was part of the value of the property we bought, and now we're being told that the lake is going to drop, and we're going to lose that value," said Brightwell. "We believe that the impact on Pickens and Oconee counties will be relatively significant

Duke Energy now has to operate the lake 5 feet below full pool or higher. If it were to go any lower, the Oconee nuclear plant would have to go offline. Because of that restriction on Duke Energy, Brightwell said he and many homeowners bought property at Lake Keowee because they believed lake levels would stay the same.

"Most of our docks, or a lot of our docks, would be on dry land. I think Duke said about 46 percent of our docks would be on dry land, and we will lose the use of our docks and our property values will fall accordingly," said Brightwell.

In a statement, Duke Energy spokeswoman Erin Culbert said, "We understand that lake residents are concerned about possible lower lake levels, and the stakeholder team is working on ways to reduce the potential impact. It's critical, though, that the Stakeholder Team be allowed to continue its work on negotiating a balanced Relicensing Agreement so we can have the best opportunity for local solutions to these issues."

Culbert said the proposal is being made to allow the basin to better withstand future droughts.

Duke Energy hopes to have a non-binding agreement by July, and will file its application for a new license by August 2014.

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